dooder85

On 3/17/2016 at 6:17 PM, stripehunter said:

My bulwarks seemed a little too angular in the stern.  I steamed the back portion of them and clamped them to dry and square things up. 

 

 

Given the little irregularities in the lay of my deck, I opted to plank the bulwarks after application. 

 

My first working with the thin planking, I decided to let it take the shape of the bulwarks, angling up at the bow.  In hindsight, I probably would have used my jig to shape these planks, as I did on the outside.   Live and learn, although I must say I'm not opposed to the angular appearance.  Most of this will be concealed anyway.

 

At this point, I decided that I would apply the keel/stem/post before the second planking.  I applied the stern piece, and started filling it in. 

 

At this point, I wasn't sure what to do about the stern and the post; whether to transition to thinner planking, etc. There's not good pictures or instruction detail regarding this area.  After giving it much thought, I decided to use thick wood over the entire stern/rudder area.  This would make my keel too short, so I opted to inlay the post into this wood. It should put the rudder in a nice spot still, and I like the results so far.

 

I glued the post in place there before doing the rest of the keel pieces.

 

Thank you for posting this, this is the point i am at in my build that almost made me quit - I have a bit of an idea what to do now, thank you!

I think i finally got the hang of planking, sadly it was after most of the hull was done... poorly..

I read ahead in the instructions and they seem to refer to all strip wood as planks so I'm going to assume i did it correctly at this point lol.  It does appear to be double hulled, so i will do the basswod layer and then the veneer over top - should look sharp

OK so i have my build log started, I think it's even named correctly, thanks again for all the help guys.  Richard, it's a 2013 kit.   the pictures included are from back when they did die-cuts tho - mine is laser-cut, so the reference material isn't quite matching up - that could be where half the paranoia is coming from

the veneer is quite a bit darker, i just found a build log where the deck was planked after being attached - that is what i would do next time, the gaps in the boards are just too big in my opinion

First build here, i read somewhere that the first kits have detailed instructions that build your knowledge base to know how to fill in the blanks when it comes to the less detailed instructions on the larger / more complex kits.. if that's the case I sure am glad i started with this little guy because i'm really struggling with the instructions!  The miniature furniture kits / scratch-build tutorials i've worked off of have been drowning in detail.

The build was going reasonably smoothly until I got the planking, where the instructions call for installing the sheeting, after rummaging through the kit a few times looking for a sheet of planks I decided it must be another name for strip wood.  I didn't question this until i was securing the deck and the spacing between planks grew out of scale that I started second guessing and, digging through the kit one more time, found a pile of veneer strips - at this point i'm not sure if i've used my hull materials as planking or not!  The images all appear to be strip wood, so i'm going to carry on and assume everything is fine.  It's incredibly difficult to tell from any of the images online which wood was used, i seem to be the only one having this existential crisis.

Yesterday was spent sanding / sealing the decks and today I will tackle filing down the ribs so I can start working on the hull.

I will do that right now

I may have managed to make my first f-up... i'm not sure if i used my hull material for planking.. is planking generally very very thin?  The kit said to use sheets, of which there weren't any, now that i have the decks done and varnished i've found a bundle of .. veneer?

so i read through a few of the forum chains and i'm taking the advice given about jumping in too deep - and picked up a Swift kit on the way home tonight, learning on something a bit smaller seems.. prudent lol.  anyway i've got it's little skeleton glued and setting on my coffee table as we speak.

16 hours ago, Nirvana said:

, Dooder85

Maybe we can get a real name some day as well.

Choose a model that you feel you can be comfortable with, start a build log and post the progress.

If stuck (which will happen) we are here to help.

 

Ha, good point - Aaron here, still getting my profile and all that jazz set up.  Thanks for the warm welcome guys

so i took the plunge and finally ordered a kit - the Venetian Polacca (sp?) by Amati - it hasn't landed here yet but i'm already panicking as it doesn't seem like anyone - anywhere - has built this kit. 

This is my first ship, but i have built dollhouses & furniture (kits and scratch) so I think i will be able to fuddle it out with some of ya'lls help.

Thanks for having me!